Sorry Mr. Wayno! didnt see this Q till just now. biggest/longest from or to DFW is the Quantas 74-4 to Brisbane every evening..... and the Cathay 74-8 when it shows up......that 74-8 is one looooong looking sheba!

You know what is gonna happen now is that every private pilot and his cousin are going to buzz their homes 24/7 to check is there are any intruders resulting in absolute chaos prompting desperate calls to 911 and the FAA and the FBI and what not for fear that unidentified planes are swooping dangerously close to ground, just wait (LOL!!!)

It "ain't" the grammar. It's the assumptions built into the predictive algorithms of the spell check subroutines in the ipad."To err is human, to really #!%}*+# things up take a computer"(composed on an ipad2, not a Pickett N-500-ES)

The sad thing is -- this guy will probably lose his license for a while..... (Or, if the stars align and the FSDO is kind and gentle, maybe the enforcement decision tool will yield a result like a little counseling and a slap on the wrist? Fingers are crossed.

Though to the lay man, everything he did seemed to be pretty reasonable for a homeowner watching someone stealing from his home, unless he can prove he was in the process of landing or taking off, which he pretty much publicly stated he wasn't (he admitted that he buzzed his house at 300 feet and there was no airport nearby), this poor guy admitted to the whole world he violated FAR 91.119, particularly sections (a) and either (b) or (c), Minimum Safe Altitudes. And, of course, don't forget the ubiquitous 91.13, Careless and Reckless.....

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§ 91.119 Minimum safe altitudes: General.

Except when necessary for takeoff or landing, no person may operate an aircraft below the following altitudes:

(a) Anywhere. An altitude allowing, if a power unit fails, an emergency landing without undue hazard to persons or property on the surface.

(b) Over congested areas. Over any congested area of a city, town, or settlement, or over any open air assembly of persons, an altitude of 1,000 feet above the highest obstacle within a horizontal radius of 2,000 feet of the aircraft.

(c) Over other than congested areas. An altitude of 500 feet above the surface, except over open water or sparsely populated areas. In those cases, the aircraft may not be operated closer than 500 feet to any person, vessel, vehicle, or structure.

I was not smart that he admit that! The FAA really has to open an investigation now. I can imagine some personal sympathy and perhaps a nod to extenuating circumstances and cooperation. Here's hoping he gets by with some additional training and review. Still, if there were some sort of failure at that height he'd not have had much time to evaluate options.

Yup, probably was a slow day at the local FSDO until they caught wind of this. Minimum altitudes, not in the vicinity of an airport, while not landing or taking off, 1000' minimum over any structures within a 2000' radius, etc., etc.

I can understand the thrill of the chase. I can fully understand a property owner catching someone in the act against their 'stuff'. However, rules are rules.

Now, presuming he was actually 300' AGL, and **if** the FAA decided to investigate/prosecute, it is up to them to determine what altitude the pilot was at and what FARs were broken.

What this pilot could have done, if he was really smart, if there was a low altitude bust he should have filed an ASRS and claimed that in the 'excitement of the chase', he might have descended below minimum altitudes, but as soon as the error was realized, he resumed correct altitudes. It was inadvertent, not planned, and corrected. So he could escape certificate actions if there were any in the works, although I suspect what would really happen is the FSDO will let this drop after a nice chat with a GA inspector.

Great thinking! Just in case he wasn't aware (and he wasn't!), I just called Mr. Zehntner and told him about the ASRS program. He'll be filing a form. We also chatted all about FAR 91.119 and reviewed his feelings that he was at all times in compliance with it. Reviewing a map of the area, he's got a pretty decent case.... We were glad to have chatted and he'll be glad to have the form in his back pocket, just in case....

It would have been simpler to have kept quiet. If no one files a complaint, perhaps the FAA won't learn of the infraction - officially, at least. If an investigation is opened, leniency is all that is left. The rule doesn't contemplate extenuating circumstances short of an emergency in the aircraft.

Homeowner gets a bird's eye view of thief making away with his trailer

(CNN) -- A lot of things can go wrong in life that you can plan for, but some are just too far-fetched to bother with -- or so you'd think.Just ask the man who stole a trailer from outside a Florida home, unconcerned about the small plane buzzing overhead.Turns out the pilot of the single-engine Cessna was the home owner who just happened to be flying by when he spotted the theft in progress.

The pilot, David Zehntner, was returning home to Glades County, Fla., on Sunday in his Cesna 182 and decided to fly over his home in LaBelle, when he noticed an unfamiliar truck in his driveway. Zehntner told WBBH he hovered over his home for nearly 10 minutes, watching a man try to break into his house.